It's easy to blame minorities

Yahoo has some 11,000 workers. Most estimates put the number of remote workers between 300 and 500. In other words, just 2-4% of the Yahoo work force. That’s a tiny minority!

But that’s exactly why it’s been so easy to place the blame on them for Yahoo’s ails. Minorities make for great scapegoats in all walks of life. If we can just place the blame on this small group of people, then it means there’s nothing really wrong with the rest of us.

Gruber summed up this sentiment as “Yahoo employees have been allowed to work remotely, and they have not excelled”. In other words, Yahoo is a rudderless basket case, so it must be because of those 2-4% of the work force who are “goofing off”. Heh.

Yahoo puts the same blame in their original edict: “To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side”. So yes, remote workers are keeping Yahoo from being the “absolute best place to work”.

Jean-Philippe Boily

Working remotely, which I do, forces us to have good communications and processes (does not mean huge and complex process). Communication is the key to good work, even when working side-by-side.

My feeling is that failing at communication seems to hurt more if you work remotely and this is so easy to bash on being remote.

When communication fails for some reason, do not blame anything but the persons trying to communicate. Just communicate well.

Matt Leonard

on 01 Mar 13

Refuting Gruber with statistics – nice tactic ;-)

Simon

on 01 Mar 13

Remote work looks like a scapegoat for Yahoo’s lack of management.

Ryan Fischer

on 01 Mar 13

No matter how small a percentage, if you find something isn’t performing wouldn’t you make a change with it? I haven’t seen Yahoo saying that this will change their company outlook. It seems to be one step out of many to try to bring the company back.

David Yewsuc

on 01 Mar 13

You are stupid. Yahoo! is the best search engine. It is better than all other search engines.

GregT

on 01 Mar 13

For anyone else here who is a fan of The Economist … the Yahoo story is a Leader in this week’s issue (which came out yesterday). Their opinion is approximately consistent with 37s’s (which is a little surprising to me, but there you are).

GregTerrible

on 01 Mar 13

GregT, is your last name Terrible? Because it would be fitting, because your comment is terrible.

ChrisB

on 01 Mar 13

If your company was going southward, theres no better way to end it by flexing some muscle and forcing people to do things they dont want to do.

Mridul

on 01 Mar 13

When the company goes down the CEO takes the blame. He/she is the minority among the minority among the minority among the minority .......

If that is justified, then why not this ?

Simon

on 01 Mar 13

Slacking off may exist but should be taken care of one individual at a time.

Anonymous Coward

on 01 Mar 13

And if slacking off became the norm … then I guess Yahoo needs a massive re organisation (eg firing).

Kevin

on 01 Mar 13

Not to put words in Gruber’s mouth, but his comment seems to clearly be in response specifically to Richard Branson’s statement “Give people the freedom of where to work and they will excel.” The first part of John’s sentence confirms this: “It may well be that Mayer’s policy change will not help Yahoo, but Branson’s statement is clearly wrong:”

That is, he’s not blaming the remote workers. He’s only saying that the freedom=success argument doesn’t hold up. There was freedom, and there was no success.

Of course, I’m not disagreeing with you on the greater point, only pointing out that your evidence of the blaming of minorities taking place isn’t quite sound.

Alan

on 01 Mar 13

I think you’re doing exactly the same thing here, though, David, by blaming Yahoo! for acting in a way that’s been generally accepted in the business world for ages. They’re clearly not the only company with a no remoters policy – Apple’s building a building that looks amazing but ultimately locks employees butts to seats. I’d love to hear you turn this more into a call across the industry, and not just an attack on a company that most consider irrelevant at this point anyway. It’s easy to blame minorities.

Johnny

on 01 Mar 13

I don’t think Gruber was saying that is was JUST because of remote workers Yahoo! was ailing. I think he was responding to the argument that companies should allow people to work where they are most productive. But apparently allowing people to work from home isn’t necessarily making them (or a portion of them) as productive as they can be. Accounts from current and former employees indicate that “working from home” at Yahoo! is a joke. I certainly don’t mean to cast judgement on all at-home employees but as new CEO Mayer has to sort of reign in everyone to sort out who’s doing what. I wouldn’t be surprised if the work from home policy was reinstated once it has been determined that the pool of employees is composed of hard working, productive and honest people. I think we all agree that there are lots of changes that need to take place this is just one small piece.

Glenn

on 01 Mar 13

I am reading the same thing as you David, and I don’t see it as scapegoating. They made a call for the good of their business. Neither you, nor I have the information that they have about the situation, nor do we know their big plans. There are different opinions on what works, and there are different management styles. Just because this works for 37 Signals, doesn’t mean that it works for every company. Steve Jobs didn’t agree with you on this point. I hope that when you guys come out with your book about remote working that you acknowledge that it’s one way of doing things and that it may not be right for every company, otherwise it has the potential to sound arrogant. You know what’s best for your company, and you are an innovator and have some things that you can teach business leaders, but you don’t know what’s best for every company.

Aliotsy Andrianarivo

on 01 Mar 13

I’m a long-time admirer of 37signals (one of my fondest memories as a college kid was getting linked by you on the 37express page), I enjoyed Getting Real, am enjoying REWORK and expect to enjoy REMOTE. That said, the last two posts about Yahoo and remote working have been silly.

I do not see anyone asserting that remote workers ought to shoulder the burden of Yahoo’s shortcomings—not even Gruber, when you read his post.

The principles in Getting Real and REWORK are refreshing, but I doubt they work at all companies. That said, I also think most companies would be wise to test those principles and see if they do work. In the same vein, remote work clearly thrives at 37signals. Maybe it doesn’t at Yahoo—or maybe it doesn’t.

Marissa Mayer, for better or worse, is relentlessly data-driven in her decision-making (she was, after all, the one whose decision to test 41 shades of blue likely drove Doug Bowman to Twitter). And I’m sure she’s likely making the call to test this culture change using the best data on hand. Data like the HBR studies Penelope Trunk cites in her piece about Yahoo’s decision, probably the best defense of Mayer I’ve seen yet. I wish the posts from 37signals criticizing Mayer’s decision were more like that, rather than the dismissive rants setting up straw man arguments that we’ve seen so far.

Fred

on 01 Mar 13

STOP attacking yahoo to promote your upcoming book/idea. There are millions of companies out there that don’t allow working remotely. Why are you picking on yahoo?

It’s really nothing wrong to regroup the whole company again, nurturing a stronger culture in a shared space and have a good face to face time. You are not Yahoo’s CEO, stop acting like one and apply your thought as universal thought all companies should apply.

And the most important point, there is nothing blaming of minorities sort of thing here. In another perspective, it’s just a move worth trying.

Ahmed

on 01 Mar 13

When is 37Signals going to hire some former Yahoo remote works to really make a statement ? :)

Jon

on 01 Mar 13

Hey guys, sorry to interrupt, but can anyone tell me what this Yahoo company does and how they generate revenue?

Marrisa

on 01 Mar 13

Any Yahoo employees care to comment?

Question

on 01 Mar 13

What happens if the new management had success on that cutting the remote access, and the Yahoo begins grow up again?

How the world will deal with this?

Fred

on 01 Mar 13

After posting my comment above, it’s kind of funny to think about it.

I’m like telling myself why am I picking on David’s blog. There are thousands of news outlets talking about this latest Yahoo CEO’s policy. Even Gruber chimed in with the crowd. It’s everywhere. Why single out David alone to be one who shouldn’t talk about Yahoo’s remote worker policy. Probably it’s just me expecting to find quality post on this blog rather than a strong voice lemming toward the mainstream news.

In the end, this could be just a nice marketing move to promote the idea of working remotely. It’s definitely worth trying. Nice try, David!

Well, just that it hurts when ball of accusation start rolling, claiming it as a case of blaming the minorities. Yahoo shouldn’t be the revolutionary idea’s crown spacegoat of what 99.99% of working people has been doing all the time.

Jon

on 01 Mar 13

If a worker can’t excel and be productive with the benefits of working at home, do you really expect them to provide exceptional work in the office? I don’t know anyone who is a superstar that needs someone breathing down their neck to produce their best work. You are either motivated and a self-starter or your not. Companies like 37signals and Automattic do well in remote environments because they hire motivated employees who want to excel. Accountability isn’t necessary because it’s built into the DNA of the employee. Communication is excellent because it needs to be.

How could anyone who works in web technologies think that Yahoo’s frontpage and service are well done? Obviously the management does because they allow it to persist.

John Liverspool

on 01 Mar 13

I think it’s just childish to keep putting your nose into someone else’s business. If you’re so concerned about the 300-500 “poor” minorities why don’t you hire them all?

It really doesn’t matter what decisions a company makes. If they fail because of this they will suffer the consequences. On the other hand, if they strive and gain more success it’s on their own merit.

You have no idea what led them to that decision. You have no stakes in the company. It’s so freaking easy to gain popularity by blaming someone else from your small safe spot.

So I think it’s just coward to keep pressing on this subject unless you’re prepared to do something. If you’re so concerned about Yahoo why not buy enough of their business to have voting powers and then change these kinds of decisions?

Otherwise, each one with their own business. Yahoo don’t criticize 37signals, they don’t care. You shouldn’t as well. This smells just as link bait for more popularity by using left wing populism agenda to call in the masses.

Shame on you.

ploogman

on 01 Mar 13

this is all about cutting jobs, not whether remote is good or bad, yahoo just wants to make cuts “under the radar”, nothing more and nothing less. period. they know some workers live nowhere near a Yahoo office and they know others will not agree to be chained to the office, so they know they can thin their payroll this way

Marissa Mayer

on 01 Mar 13

I quit as CEO of Yahoo!, effective immediately. I just can’t take this criticism anymore. I elect DHH as my replacement, also effective immediately.

David H.

on 01 Mar 13

I accept your resignation, Marissa, and I am happy to accept the role of CEO of Yahoo! My first order of business will be to rewrite the search engine using Ruby. Also, Yahoo! Mail will henceforth be known as gemmail. For a fee of $35/month users may upgrade to railsmail, which includes 45 hours of personal 37 signals coaching by yours truly. Please see yahoo.com/ruby for more information.

Gruber

on 01 Mar 13

This is excellent news. I knew Yahoo! was moving in a better direction, but I am astounded at the speed and efficiency of it all. It reminds me of the first time I used an iPhone. I was blown away at how much better it was than my old phone, the Motorola StarTAC. Man that thing was slow. But still better than an Android phone – am I right guys? Man Google is just a terrible company. Go Yahoo!

Chad

on 01 Mar 13

37signals sells colloboration software.

Yahoo states colloboration best occurs face-to-face

No bring surprise here 37signals doesn’t like Yahoo recent move

Mark

on 02 Mar 13

Like any large company with tens of thousands of employees, all 11,000 of those people don’t work in the same group. It’s not necessarily the case that this 2-4% of the total Yahoo population is a “minority”. It could be, in fact, an entire group responsible for a complete sector of the company. Assuming this, it would be necessary to rein these folks in to see what’s going on.

I work for a company with nearly 100,000 employees. The group I work for has 3,000 (or 3% of the population), yet it accounts for billions in revenue.

TDG

on 03 Mar 13

If you want to work remotedly, go work for Google…and be an Ad Quality Rater. That’s your only option.

mark

on 03 Mar 13

David, you are wrong. You know why? Because you have no idea what is going at Yahoo. You’ve read something somewhere and now ate making judgements.

And you cant be right all the time, its not possible:)

Corporate

on 03 Mar 13

Here’s my take on working from home from a small tech company owner.

- If your boss doesn’t care that you work at home as long as your tasks get done, then you’re probably not getting paid great money, or your boss just doesn’t really care as long as you make him look good. Business owners DO care, and you’ll have to add lots of productivity to that to make them happy AND be a self-starter.

- It’s not for everyone. a) Some people actually can’t communicate well by IM, email or phone. Definitely a good reason to hire people who can communicate well by any method. Nonetheless, the world is full of these people. They have to work in the office. b) Some people are indeed too distracted at home. They have to work in the office. On top of that, Facebook should be blocked for those people in the office. c) People who are not self-starters, who need accountability, who are not motivated working not for themselves at home, they need to work in the office. d) Some don’t make great micro decisions on their own, frankly, and need too much communication to get anything done. That’s more difficult remotely. There’s a lot of those people out there too. Someone has to hire them. For HR, this is a policy mess, to allow some to work at home and some not to and creates division.

- Communication is not nearly as good. a) It needs to be scheduled for when people are back to their IM client. b) Many people just don’t know where they stand after a written communcation. Feelings get hurt. You know the drill. c) Written communication is inefficient. It’s passive. It’s not immediate. Sometimes that’s good. Sometimes not.

- If you want to work at home to avoid people or “focus” better, then you’re not as valuable to the company as those who can do those things at the office.

- Security has to be addressed. Our office is physically more secure than your home. Your laptop gets lost or stolen, and that becomes our problem. Your passwords get hacked due to your loose wifi network after your kid resets your router, and that’s our problem.

- If you hate your office so much, you probably don’t like your job. If you don’t like your job, you’re not going to like it more from home. You’re going to like your life more, but you need to find other work you love more.

- Working from home is not the same as working when you want to. These are two different things, sometimes combined. Working when you want to is completely separate and determined by job. If, at home, you still need to remain available 9-5, then you don’t have that flexibility.

- It’s not for small businesses/offices where people have to wear a lot of hats that the internet just doesn’t allow you to wear well.

- Workers are not seeking out as much communication with other workers when they’re remote and can’t see each other. Out of sight, out of mind. Nothing like a room full of people working together. We find problems faster, because others tune into phone calls and hear post-phonecall dialogue about issues, etc. Remote workers hear nothing and see nothing and experience nothing that the rest of the group does together in the office.

- Relationships stagnate. People get bored. Workers have to work harder to maintain relationships. If they are not trying harder, those relationships will suffer. Workers need to feel a part of something, not disconnected from it. See how people act on the web when they are separate from the group?

- My take on pay: Telecommuters do and should make less money than their office counterparts. They get a huge break on wear and tear on the vehicle and gas consumption, clothes, time, food, etc. Should they work more to earn the same money? Yes. They don’t have to be as accountable. You can’t find such a benefit all over the place. It’s a luxury. You should pay for it.

- From the workers’ perspective, remember, if you’re out of your employer’s sight, you may be out of his mind come eval/promotion/bonus time. If you can’t be seen and measured the old-fashioned way, you may get passed up for promotion if someone in the office is more visible and the relationship is better due to that proximity. That’s human nature.

- If you can work from home, maybe your employer can simply outsource your job cheaper.

- You’re more easily let go remotely too. I worked for a company that transitioned most of us home for a few weeks of retooling, and that turned into remote permanent layoffs for everyone. Basically, you become more anonymous. It easier to transition you out the company if you’re not physically IN the company. Are you “real” anymore?

- As an owner, I’m less likely to micromanage you at the office, because I consider you “paying your dues” and being a part of the group.

To work at home for me, it would have to be proven that you:
1. Require little maintenance
2. Are a proven self-starter
3. Are noticeably productive
4. Communicate to me very well and efficiently in writing (I don’t like to be on the phone with you all day)
5. BE THERE when we need to communicate with you
6. Be a level-headed, rational person
7. Will not cause me more work by being out of the office

You’d better be the best of the best AND be productive ALREADY to expect to get a chance to work from home in a good company if you have a smart boss.

Zingus

on 04 Mar 13

how about the costs of keeping that minority remote? they might be trough the roof.

A comment on another blog highlighted to me how the majority/minority status of remote working seriously enhances/hinders its usefulness.

Tim

on 05 Mar 13

@Corporate:

You said:

To work at home for me, it would have to be proven that you: 1. Require little maintenance 2. Are a proven self-starter 3. Are noticeably productive 4. Communicate to me very well and efficiently in writing (I don’t like to be on the phone with you all day) 5. BE THERE when we need to communicate with you 6. Be a level-headed, rational person 7. Will not cause me more work by being out of the office

My question to you is, why would you hire anyone, remote or not, who didn’t meet all of those criteria anyway?

Corporate

on 05 Mar 13

Tim, I’ll let you write the article on why not to hire someone who doesn’t fit those criteria. :-)

Ka Wai

on 05 Mar 13

I generally agree with what you have to say, but you’re really stretching and twisting and trivializing points here.

“Gruber summed up this sentiment as “Yahoo employees have been allowed to work remotely, and they have not excelled”. In other words, Yahoo is a rudderless basket case, so it must be because of those 2-4% of the work force who are “goofing off”. Heh.”

Well…maybe. It’s been noted by some Yahoo! employees that people were abusing the WFH policy, were working on other projects on company time, and weren’t checking in. If you’re one of the vast majority of workers coming to work for Yahoo! each day and you can’t regroup with your boss or co-worker because they aren’t in the office or aren’t available on Campfire, suddenly the impact of the 2-4% minority is creeping pretty deeply into the productivity of the majority.

“In other words, just 2-4% of the Yahoo work force. That’s a tiny minority! But that’s exactly why it’s been so easy to place the blame on them for Yahoo’s ails. Minorities make for great scapegoats in all walks of life. If we can just place the blame on this small group of people, then it means there’s nothing really wrong with the rest of us.”

If I’m interpreting this right, you believe that Marissa Mayer, in trying to right a sinking ship, sought to find some convenient minority demographic to penalize, in order to let the rest of the company off the hook.

“So yes, remote workers are keeping Yahoo from being the “absolute best place to work”. What a parody, what a farce.”

It could be. Perhaps, getting everyone back into the office, parting ways with the old Blackberrys for paid-for iPhone 5’s and Android devices, working on fewer products with a renewed focus on mobile, for a CEO who actually gives a damn about the company, its products, and its clearly defunct culture will energizing her employees. It just might be the key to Yahoo!s success, and not its demise.

This discussion is closed.

About David

Creator of Ruby on Rails, partner at 37signals, best-selling author, public speaker, race-car driver, hobbyist photographer, and family man.